LETTERS; Is It High Noon at the G.O.P. Corral?

Published: May 7, 2009

To the Editor:

David Brooks, in ''The Long Voyage Home'' (column, May 5), reminds Republicans that they are, or should be, the party of civic order.

Since the ancient republics, however, civic order has been the product of civic virtue, the principle of participation in government and protection of the interests of the commonwealth and the common good.

The community in a republic is not formed simply to achieve order. It is formed to respect and guarantee to future generations all those goods we hold in common.

Gary Hart
Kittredge, Colo., May 5, 2009

The writer, a former Democratic senator from Colorado, is the author of a book about the Jeffersonian ideal in 21st-century America.

To the Editor:

David Brooks posits that Republicans are in trouble because they are ''the party of untrammeled freedom and maximum individual choice.''

Huh?

Republicans favor government intrusions into such fundamental individual choices as reproductive health, marriage, adoption and death. That is a big part of their problem, one that they ignore at their peril.

Deborah Leavy
Haverford, Pa., May 5, 2009

To the Editor:

David Brooks's excellent column struck a real chord with this cradle Republican.

I don't recognize the people who have taken over the party my family served for 150 years. The Republicans I grew up among believed in democratic capitalism, not a feudal society of gated communities for themselves served by an ill-housed, ill-nourished, ill-educated, un-doctored servant population.

They were veterans and had learned in war that everyone is expendable. They did not have utter contempt for working people. Even amid the social upheaval of the '60s, they were not like the callous, precious, entitled people currently calling themselves ''Republicans.''

Ann N. Greene
Philadelphia, May 6, 2009

To the Editor:

I take exception to David Brooks's assertion that one of Republicans' core themes is ''moral clarity.''

Does the Republican position of disregard for a policy of health care for all show moral clarity? What moral? Indifference?

Does the Republican position of tax the poor and middle class and give tax-breaks to the rich show moral clarity? What moral? Selfishness?

How about the Republican position on global climate change? What moral? Ignorance?

What does the Republicans' beloved trumpeting of individualism boil down to many times? Greed.

This self-held belief that the Republicans still cling to, that they are the party of moral clarity and family values, is delusional. The veil has been pulled down, and a majority of Americans see Republican policies and political tactics for what they are. Immoral.

Susan Hall Remacle
Canaan, N.H., May 5, 2009

To the Editor:

David Brooks would have us believe that inherent in the Republican philosophy is a belief in individual freedom. This is certainly so, if the freedom in question is to own any type of gun without restriction or to run a business without any regulations that protect the environment and the consumer.

But what if one is a man or woman who wants to marry a person of the same sex, or a woman who wants to choose whether to bring a child into the world? Not so much.

James Spada
Boston, May 5, 2009

To the Editor:

David Brooks got it only half right when he wrote that the Republicans draw the wrong lessons from classic western movies.

Instead of emulating the lone pioneer hero like Wyatt Earp, as Mr. Brooks suggests, the Republicans are acting like a gang of ruffians who ride into town and shoot up the place just when the beleaguered sheriff -- in this case President Obama -- is trying to restore some semblance of civic order.